Others
Cleaned It By Filtrating, But It Went Through So Slowly That They Could
Ill Endure To Wait So Long, And Were Loath To Lose So Much Precious
Liquid.
Some licked the water like dogs with their tongues from the
decks, sides, rails, and masts of the ship.
Others, that were more
ingenious, fastened girdles or ropes about the masts, daubing tallow
between these and the mast, that the rain might not run down between;
and making one part of these girdles lower than the rest, fixed spouts
of leather at these lower parts, that the rain running down the masts
might meet and be received at these spouts. He who was fortunate enough
to procure a can of water by these means, was sued to, and envied as a
rich man.
_Quem pulchrum digito monstrari, et dicere hic est_.
Some of the poor Spaniards who were prisoners, though having the same
allowance with our own men, often begged us for the love of God to give
them as much water as they could hold in the hollow of their hands: And,
notwithstanding our own great extremity, they were given it, to teach
them some humanity, instead of their accustomed barbarity both to us and
other nations. Some put leaden bullets into their months, to slack their
thirst by chewing them. In every corner of the ship, the miserable cries
of the sick and wounded were sounding lamentably in our ears, pitifully
crying out and lamenting for want of drink, being ready to die, yea many
dying for lack thereof.
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